Murex D'or: celeb gossip from the golden awards

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Image 1 of 14: Murex D'or 2012 honored late legend 'Algerian Rose', Warda, with a life-time achievement award. Very fitting for the veteran pan-Arab singer whose death came as a shock to the Arab world last month in May.

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Image 1 of 14: All the stars were out Sunday, June 10th, and they were doing their best to out-dress one another. Favorite colors were black and gold with more than a hint of shoulder and leg. Not to be forgotten were the wives with barely a real nose in sight. Not unusual for an Arab celeb rendezvous in Lebanon.

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Image 1 of 14: Nawal Zoghbi was a vision in midnight blue, wearing a teeny-tiny dress by international designer Ellie Saab with hair and make-up by Joe Raad. The star won the award for Best Lebanese Singer.

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Image 1 of 14: She was the Cinderella of the awards ceremony, running off before midnight with a dress made of pieces of glass but Sherine Abd al Wahab managed to keep reporters waiting for nearly four hours beforehand! A little more princess than scullery maid.

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Image 1 of 14: Maryam Faris doesn't have the lithest of limbs at the best of times but found herself the butt of reporters' jokes when she turned up in an ensemble they termed "the lightbulb". A fluorescent two part dress made the singer look even dumpier than usual, despite her revealing a shorter version of the sugar-plumb skirt mid-way through performance.

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Image 1 of 14: Maksim Khalil and his wife Sawsan made a splash in matching black garb. The Syrian acting couple were making a statement about lives lost in Syria but no one was quite sure if they were pro-Assad or for the FSA.

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Image 1 of 14: Presumptuous? Moi? Actress Nadine Nujaim posted a note of self-congratulations on her Facebook page but it was before the awards had been handed out! Fortunately she did go on to win Best Actress, leaving only a hint of egg on her face.

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Image 1 of 14: Sore winner? Not wanting to strain herself, Carole Samaha decided to let her agent pick up the lifetime achievement award on her behalf. The actress had spent a bit too much time in the gym beforehand and told reporters she was too sore to attend.

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Image 1 of 14: Anwar Anwar was the first victim of misidentification. The poor up-and-coming singing star was clearly not known enough to have presenters call out his name correctly or write it down properly on the award!

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Image 1 of 14: Oh the awkward question: was she pregnant or just wearing an unflattering dress? Yemeni Arwa, one of the Murex D'Or judges, confounded reporters by denying the pregnancy at a press conference. She later told journalists she was really expecting but just didn't want to jinx the birth by telling them.

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Image 1 of 14: Elissa and Haifa Wehbe skip Murex D'or: neither star attended the ceremony this year, which was a first for them. Last year Haifa hit the headlines by refusing to give the presenter of her award a third kiss on the cheek (flouting the Lebanese tradition). Looks like it was a flirtation too far for the Lebanese beauty who knows her limits.

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Image 1 of 14: Poor Mansour Zayed was pretty far down the list of awards and found himself receiving his to a semi-empty hall. Stars and audience members were quick to file out of the building as soon as the big names had left.

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Image 1 of 14: Sara el Hani took the dubious title of 'worst dressed female', unofficially of course. No one was quite sure if she was trying to look like a mermaid or a creature from the deep in the shocking strapless and backless ensemble.

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Image 1 of 14: Mistaken identities: The name mix up continued with presenters confusing "Sherine" with "Sereen." An easy mistake to make, you might think but not when you're Sherine Abd al Wahab being confused with Sereen Abdel Noor. The latter wasn't even at the ceremony!

The Lebanese Murex D'or awards also known as the Golden Murex awards did not sneak by unnoticed this year, not completely shadowed by the political turmoil and drama afflicting the region as a whole. Instead, the Murex D'or of 2012 contained a healthy amount of the usual red-carpet fuss and hot gossip.

These Lebanese awards of pan-Arab recognition in the realm of film and the arts have been running since 2000 in the Lebanese capital in honor of the 'Phoenecian' root of the purple-dyed name.

The stars and the fans, critics and media were all a-go with talk of the celebs who showed up in all their glamor and glitz, to those that were no-shows, and those that were pregnant and proud. Also present were the necessary dress faux pas and the explicit competition between stars trying to out-do each other in beauty and diva-factor.

Any comments on any of the best dressed/ worse dressed celebs or achievements of the Arab stars at Murex?